South Africa’s electricity
system faces many critical challenges, including the necessity of
climate change mitigation, provision of energy services to the poor,
and electricity requirements of a growing economy. We need to be
able to think creatively about future power options, while making
realistic assessments of technical requirements and the economic and
environmental consequences of specific choices. These considerations
are traditionally accommodated through electricity planning systems,
which are based on complex models which are challenging,
time-consuming and expensive to run. Only a small range of
alternatives are considered, assumptions are not easily tested, and
the implications of many options are left unexplored.

SNAPP overcomes these barriers by
providing a transparent, spreadsheet-based electricity system model
which is very simple to use, and requires little more than a keen
interest in our electricity future. On the one hand, it is a useful
tool to explore the implications of specific technology choices, and
on the other, it provides a high degree of technical rigour for
users who wish to develop plausible and detailed future electricity
scenarios for South Africa.

SNAPP allows users to specify future
investments in the South African electricity system, and calculates
the costs, the investment requirements, probably impact on the
average cost of generation (and thus the electricity price), and the
emissions implications, and includes a sophisticated reliability
check to ensure that the chosen investments will result in a
reliable electricity system. Unlike traditional modelling
frameworks, because SNAPP is a spreadsheet, results are
instantaneous. Users can immediately see the consequences of their
choices without having to ‘run’ a complex modelling framework. In
addition, users can impose taxes on GHG emissions, alter electricity
demand to accommodate a solar water heating or PV programme, or a
broader energy efficiency strategy, change the discount rate, change
fuel prices, and any other more advanced technical parameter. Other
data such as levelised costs of potential generating options is
automatically calculated. SNAPP allows comparison between two
different scenarios, and also conveys detailed information on the
performance of each technology in each scenario.

SNAPP has been recalibrated with the
parameters used in IRP 2010, so that users can explore the
implications of the IRP2010 scenarios, and see the effect of changes
to the parameters